EEE 410 – Microprocessors I

Spring 04/05 – Lecture Notes # 16

Outline of the Lecture
• Input/Output (I/O) and Device Interfacing

INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O) AND DEVICE INTERFACING

In addition to memory, 80x86 microprocessors are able to access I/O ports. Ports are
accessed either to bring data from the port into the CPU (inputting) or to send data from the
CPU to the port (outputting).

Input/Output Instructions in 8086 CPU

The 8086 microprocessor can access information from ports as well as from the memory.
There are two instructions for this purpose “IN” and “OUT”. These instructions can send
data from the accumulator (AX, AL or AH) to ports or receive data from ports into the
accumulator.

Case 1: 8-bit data ports

Inputting Data Outputting Data
Format IN dest,source OUT dest,source
(1) IN AL,port# OUT port#,AL
(2) MOV DX,port# MOV DX,port#
IN AL,DX OUT DX,AL

In format (1) above, port# is the address of the port, and can be from 00 to FFH. This 8-bit
address allows 256 input ports and 256 output ports. No segment register is involved in
computing the address, in contrast to the data accessed from memory.
In format (2) , port# is the address of the port, and can be from 0000 to FFFFH. This 16-bit
address allows 65,536 input ports and 65,536 output ports. No segment register (DS) is
involved.

Ex: Write a sequence of instructions that will output FFH to a byte-wide output port at the
address ABH of the I/O address space?
MOV AL,FFH
OUT ABH,AL

Ex: Write a sequence of instructions that will output FFH to an output port at the address
B000H of the I/O address space?
MOV DX,B000H ;Note that 16-bit address must be in DX
MOV AL,FFH
OUT DX,AL

Ex: Assume that the port address 22H is an input port for monitoring the temperature. Write
Assembly language instructions to monitor the port continuously for the temperature of 100
degrees. If it reaches 100, then BH should contain ‘Y’.

BACK: IN AL,22H ;get the temperature data from port# 22H

CMP AL,100 ;is temp =100?
JNZ BACK ;if not, keep monitoring
MOV BH,’Y’ ;temp =100, load ‘Y’ into BH

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Case 2: 16-bit data ports
Inputting Data Outputting Data
Format IN dest,source OUT dest,source
(1) IN AX,port# OUT port#,AX
(2) MOV DX,port# MOV DX,port#
IN AX,DX OUT DX,AX

Ex: Assume that AX=98F6H and the output port address is 47H, then

OUT 47H,AX

¾ In the above case F6H, the content of AL, goes to port address 47H and 98H, the content of
AH goes into the port address 48H.
¾ In other words the low byte goes to the low port address, and the high byte goes to the high
byte address.

• Types of Input / Output

•
Isolated Input / Output
Isolated I/O (also referred as peripheral I/O or direct I/O ) uses dedicated input (IN)
and output (OUT) instructions to transfer data between the I/O device and the
microprocessor. Isolated I/O uses separate map for the I/O space, freeing the entire memory
for use by the program.

Memory-mapped Input / Output

In memory-mapped I/O, a memory location is assigned to be input or output port, so
it uses a portion of memory space for I/O transfers. This reduces the amount of memory
available, but simplifies the hardware. “MOV” instruction is used instead of “IN” and
“OUT” instructions. M6800, M68000 and RISC processors are examples to this type.

The 8255 programmable Peripheral Interface (PPI)

The 8255 PPI chip is designed to permit easy implementation of parallel I/O
into the microcomputer. The 8255 is one of the most widely used I/O chips. It has three
separately accessible ports, A, B, and C. Above all the user can program the individual
ports to be input or output, and change them dynamically.

The block diagram of the 8255 Chip

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 Detailed Block Diagram of 8255 (a), and the Pin layout (b)

• PA0-PA7 (Port A) : This 8-bit port can be programmed all as input or all as output or
all bits as bi-directional input/output.
• PB0-PB7 (Port B) : This 8-bit port can be programmed all as input or all as output or
all bits as bi-directional port.
• PC0-PC7 (Port C) : This 8-bit port can be all input or all output. It can also be split into
two parts:
CU (Upper 4 bits PC4-PC7) and
CL (Lower 4 bits PC0-PC3).
Each can be used for input or output.

• RD and WR : These two active low signals are inputs to the 8255. If the 8255 is using
isolated I/O design, IOR or IOW of the system bus are connected to these two pins. If
the port uses memory-mapped I/O, MEMR and MEMW activate them.

• RESET: This is an active high signal input to the 8255 used to clear the control register.
When RESET is activated, all ports are initialized as input ports.

• A0, A1, and CS: While CS selects the entire chip, it is A0 and A1 that select the
specific port. A0 and A1 are used to access ports A, B, C, or the control register
according to the table below.

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 A1 A0 Selects:
0 0 Port A
0 1 Port B Table 1:
1 0 Port C
1 1 Control Register

Programming Modes of PPI

1) Mode 0: Simple input or output mode:
ƒ This mode 0 is the basic input output mode. In this mode any ports A,B or C can
be programmed as input or output.
ƒ Note that in this mode a given port cannot be both input or output port at the
same time.
ƒ One major characteristic of port C is that one can program CL (PC0-PC3) and
CU (PC4-PC7) independent of each other.

The Control Register; is used to configure the individual ports as to be in input or output
mode.
The Control Register in Mode 0
D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0
1=Mode 0 Mode selection Port A Port C Mode Port B Port C
I/O Mode 00 = Mode 0 1=input (PC7-PC4) Selection 1=input (PC3-PC0)
01 = Mode 1 0=output 1=input 0=Mode 0 0=output 1=input
1X = Mode 2 0=output 1=Mode 1 0=output

The port Addresses for the 8255

Port Address A0 A1
A 300H 00
Note that first two bits of the Address are used for the
B 301H 01
mode selection as shown in the table given above.
C 302H 10
Control Register 303H 11

Ex: Configure 8255 as follows: port A as input, B as output, and all the bits in C as output.
Determine the content of the Control Register and,
Program the ports to input data from A and send it to both B and C.
(Assume the standard port addresses of 8255 given above)

Soln: a) Control register:

1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 = 90H

b) MOV AL,90H ; This control byte is used to initialize the PPI

MOV DX,303H ;get the address of Control Register
OUT DX,AL ;output the Control Byte to the Control register
MOV DX,300H ;get the address of Port A
IN AL,DX ;input data from Port A
MOV DX,301H ;get the address of Port B
OUT DX,AL ;output data to Port B
MOV DX,302H ;get the address of Port C
OUT DX,AL ;output data to Port C

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Ex: Configure the ports of 8255 as follows: port A=input, B=output/ PC0 –PC3=input, and PC4-
PC7=output.
Determine the content of the Control Register and,
Program the 8255 to get data from port A and send it to port B. In addition, input data from
PCL and send out to PCU.

(PCL=Lower 4 bits (nibble) of Port C, PCU;Upper 4 bits(nibble) of Port C).

(Assume the standard port addresses of 8255 given above)

Soln: a) Control register:

1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 = 91H

b) MOV AL,91H ; This control byte is used to initialize the PPI

MOV DX,303H ;get the address of Control Register
OUT DX,AL ;output the Control Byte to the Control register
MOV DX,300H ;get the address of Port A
IN AL,DX ;input data from Port A
MOV DX,301H ;get the address of Port B
OUT DX,AL ;output data to Port B
MOV DX,302H ;get the address of Port C
IN AL,DX ;get the data from Port C
AND AL,0FH ;mask the upper bits
MOV CL,4 ;rotate count =4
ROL AL,CL ;shift the bits to upper position
OUT DX,AL ;output PCL to PCU

2) Mode 1: I/O with handshaking capability:

One of the most powerful features of the 8255 is the ability to handle handshaking
signals. Handshaking refers to the process of communicating back and forth between two
intelligent devices. Printer is a good example for Mode 1 Interfacing.
Port A and B are used for input or output while Port C is used for handshaking
signals.

3) Mode 2: Bi-directional I/O with handshaking:

In this mode data is transferred both in and out via the same port with handshaking
capability. Port A is used as a bi-directional port and port C is used for handshaking signals.
Port B can be configured to be in Mode 0 or 1.